The Conclave (Page 2)

LOL, Cardinal Paulie

Whomever is elected will probably have been praying hard that he not be elected.

It's arguably the most powerful office in the world, regardless of how many divisions the POTUS has, yet no one qualified wants it.

There's a small room near the Sistine Chapel that holds vestments of various sizes. The next pope after accepting will go there to put on those vestments before addressing the crowd in St. Peter's Square.

It's called the Room of Tears.

(room of tears.jpg)

Black smoke again this morning. Smoke signals are the original tweet.

Listening to some commentators on EWTN this morning who have insight into the dynamics of a conclave, although no inside information, their sense was that if there is a pope tonight or tomorrow morning, it will probably be Scola from Italy.  If the pope is elected tomorrow night or Friday morning, it will probably be Ouellet from Canada.

Both Scola and Ouellet come out of the same theological tradition as Ratzinger.  Also, reform of the curia seems to be a major issue the next pope needs to address.  The curia is the administrative structure of the papacy, sort of like the POTUS cabinet and executive branch structure.  Scola and Ouellet both have the experience to take on that task.

The commentators then said that if the conclave moves on to Friday night and beyond, to start considering some of the candidates from other countries.

In addition to their other credentials, Scola has experience in dialogue with the Muslim world while Ouellet has experience in Latin America.

A radical notion in the secular world.

If anyone wants a text when there's white smoke, go to Pope Alarm.

Boy even I'm starting to get excited and I'm an atheist.

or, you can watch the chimney live and wait:

http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nbcnews.com/51133846/#51133846

There is a bird on it right now....

Just had to post this English adaptation of the German version that's going around FB:

Small VATICAN SIGN GUIDE for the Sistine Chapel

White smoke emerges                   =             new Pope

Black smoke emerges                     =             no new Pope

Lots of white smoke emerges      =             Cigar-loving Pope

Lots of black smoke emerges       =             Chapel is on fire

Balloons emerge                             =             Cardinal has a birthday

Laser show from chimney             =             Conclave after-party

Man in all black emerges               =             chimney sweep has been found

Lots of mice emerge                       =             wine cellar door left open

Fireworks zooming out                  =             wine cellar door left open

St. Paul emerges                              =             Miracle!

45 minutes behind schedule. Hmm...
If someone's been elected, they could be going through the ceremony of acceptance and the other Cardinals processing up to the new pope.

Or it's Italy and they could just be running late. 

Technically, it's not Italy.

However, with that many cardinals from around the world, and so many non-Northern European contenders ... yep, there could be a looseness of time

Actually, I don't think so. As I understand it, they only send white smoke (meaning a Pope has been chosen) from the first sessions of the morning or afternoon. They don't send black smoke from a first session. Or so says CNN. And they send black and white smoke from the second sessions of the morning and afternoon.

We have white smoke! so says the TV

I'm watching it at work, on mute, and I couldn't tell if it's white or gray. Then they showed the bells and I figured it out. Exciting!!

Aw, I missed it!

Can't wait to find out who it is!